Heartthoughts: Heaven's Harmony

We filled our bird feeder with birdseed today. Birds are beginning to show up in our yard, some with tentative nesting behavior. Earlier two cardinals were investigating a small tree by our front porch, hopping from branch to branch, a small twig in the mouth of the female. When the brilliantly colored red male flew to a bush opposite, she followed, and I lost sight of them. I think they are the same couple that sits on a branch jutting under a metal awning that is over my kitchen window. She is always trying to balance a twig on the branch, but that’s as far as her nest-building goes in such a precarious spot.

It is amazing that God put this nesting instinct and parental drive into these small creatures. They are a joy to watch and add brightness to the days of any who are patient enough to observe them. They are a microcosm of our own human behavior as we work to establish homes, nurture our young and launch children.

The residents we see when we visit nursing homes remind me a little of frail, fluttering birds, tired and spent from life’s buffeting. But sometimes I catch a glimpse of who they once were, when a bright spark lights up their face or actions. Last night, when most of the attendees of our monthly service had been wheeled in, a late comer appeared, born on the strains of the music that had lured her from her room. Supported by her walker and accompanied by an attentive helper, she fairly danced into the room, her feet shuffling in time to “His Eye is on the Sparrow,” her eyes quietly smiling.

At an assisted living facility we visit, most have no need for walkers and come to the service under their own power. Some cannot keep their feet still as they respond to the hand clapping music, and one nearly always comes in dancing, her halting shuffle keeping the rhythm of the song as played by my husband on his guitar and our son on the mandolin. As we sing the jubilant hymns and choruses their weak voices are emboldened and blended into a cacophony of praise, as sweet as any birdsong to Him whose eye truly is on His "sparrows".